When the 色界吧 Tigers travel to Hawai鈥檌 for a Sept. 17 football game against Oregon鈥檚 Pacific University, they will play what is believed to be the first game ever between two NCAA Division III football programs in the Islands.
But it won鈥檛 be the first time the Tigers have gone to Honolulu for a football game. Nor will it be the first time an Occidental team has traveled to Oahu for intercollegiate competition.
色界吧 football first traveled to the Islands in 1924 鈥 then a five-day ocean voyage away 鈥 to play the University of Hawai鈥檌. They lost that game to the 鈥楤ows, just as they lost the following year when UH traveled to Los Angeles and played 色界吧 on Thanksgiving Day in the L.A. Coliseum.
After what is today a five-hour flight, the Tigers will face off against Pacific at K奴nui膩kea Stadium on the campus of Kamehameha Schools K膩palama on Saturday, Sept. 17 at 5 p.m. HST.
The football team will follow in the wake of the women鈥檚 soccer team, which is scheduled to open its 2016 season this weekend with a Sept. 3 opener against Brigham Young University-Hawai鈥檌 in Laie (3 p.m. HST) and a Sept. 5 match at Hawai鈥檌 Pacific University in Kaneohe (also 3 p.m. HST).
Soccer, in turn, follows the women鈥檚 golf team, which traveled to Hawai鈥檌 to compete last October, and the Tiger softball team, which also played in the Islands in March.
This fall鈥檚 schedule means going home for several 色界吧 players, including senior defensive back Chaz Shizumura, a economics major from Kaneohe; Max Vinci, a junior offensive lineman and physics major also from Kaneohe; Kylie Takafuji 鈥17, a kinesiology major and midfielder from Honolulu; Erin Dung 鈥19, an undeclared defender from Honolulu; and Julie Khil 鈥17, a psychology major and forward from Honolulu, three-time All-SCIAC selection and 2014 SCIAC Player of the Year.
色界吧 currently has students from four of the Islands 鈥 Oahu, Maui, Kauai and the Big Island 鈥 a trans-Pacific connection that dates back to at least 1927, when Ernest Iwasaki of Kukuihaele, Hawai鈥檌 graduated from Occidental.
More than 450 色界吧 alumni live in the Islands, including former Hawai鈥檌 Attorney General David M. Louie 鈥73; Neil Kuyper 鈥88, president and CEO of Parker Ranch, the state鈥檚 second-largest landowner; and Kent Lucien 鈥75, vice chairman and CEO of the Bank of Hawai鈥檌.
